Hardware

Question 1

Performance affects?

Answer 1

If performance -greater
* cache size
* clock speed
* number of cores.
Cache size
* Can store more data and
instructions.
* It can provide instructions and
data to the CPU at a much faster
rate (than other system memory
such as RAM).
Clock speed
* The FDE cycle will run faster,
resulting in more instructions
being processed.
Number of cores
* More instructions can be
processed at the same time

Question 2

Performance if more than one core

Answer 2

Performance may be affected where
one core is waiting on the result of another
and therefore cannot carry out any more
instruction.

Question 3

Flash memory drive+solid state drive

Answer 3

A non-mechanical design of semiconductor
chips
* It does not require defragmentation
* There are two types of solid state memory
NOR and NAND
contain cells (transistors) in a grid, but
the wiring between the cells differs
* If a chain of transistors conducts current,
it has the value of 1. If it doesn’t conduct
current, it’s 0

Question 4

Hard disk drive+magnetic tape drive

Answer 4

Each sector can be magnetised as 1 or
demagnetised as 0
* Data is read and written using a mechanical
arm that has a head at the end
* In hard disc drives, a platter is divided into
billions of tiny areas. As the disk spins, the
arm travels across the disk
* Each sector of the platter can store data
and the movement of both the disk and the
read / write head means that every sector
on the hard drive can be reached.

Question 5

CD / DVD
/ Blu-ray
Drive

Answer 5

• A pit is “burned” with a laser beam into the
  surface
• A pit represents 0
• The lack of a pit (a flat, unburned area
  on the disc, called a land) represents the
  number 1
• Data is stored in a continuous spiral.